Ambrosio's Unaplex II: Room within a Room Build

[tjambro]

I have finally turned the demolition corner. Instead of taking building materials out of the basement, I finally got to put some materials down. I got the dricore done. It was very easy to install and I must say it was satisfying to "add some value" to the theater project.

Here's the obligatory 3 row complete shot:



...and here's the entire theater area done. This photo is taken from the back of the sound lock room looking through the theater and the IB chamber.



Note the 2x2 squares behind the work lights are not leftover dricore squares. They are the drop ceiling tiles that I removed. The Redneck Ranger is forbidden from taking them to the dump until I re-do the lobby and laundry/sump pump room drop ceilings with these better tiles.

I did have 38 (out of 180) tiles that I took back to Lowes today. I guesstimated about 150 tiles but the Dricore calculator calculated 180. I figured it would be better to have extra and take them back so that's what I ended up doing.

[tjambro]

My dad is to arrive tomorrow and the building blitz should begin Friday. I doubt I will have time to post any pics during that week so I will update my progress once the blitz is over. Until then, here are a few more pre-blitz pictures...

Here's a shot of my 3 door slabs. They were solid core 1 3/8" slabs. I added 3/4" mdf to each one. I put a tube of GG in between the mdf and the slab. I plan on using five 4" hinges on each slab. They sure are heavy now:



This is a picture of my brand spanking new drywall lift. I predict it will be more Christmasy looking after the GG is applied to the 3 layers of drywall. I also made sure my ladder was in the shot as you guys seem to like ladder shots also:



And finally, here's the two windows that I covered. Both windows will be in the IB sub chamber. I painted one of two blueboard layers black, put that against the glass so from the street it looks like the basement lights are off and added 2 layers of 3/4" mdf to cover the windows. I sealed them with acoustical caulk:



The blueboard around the right window was added after I took down the 2x4 wall that was there. This IB chamber was a bedroom and it had R13 insulation in the wall with sheetrock. The rest of the wall was the open basement with 2x2 walls with blueboard and paneling. I took down the 2x4 wall so that I could reclaim 2" in room width for the theater.

I'll post more after the "Building Blitz".

[Prof.]

tjambro wrote:

This is a picture of my brand spanking new drywall lift. I predict it will be more Christmasy looking after the GG is applied to the 3 layers of drywall. I also made sure my ladder was in the shot as you guys seem to like ladder shots also:

That lift will make light work of the job..
You're putting up 3 layers of drywall.? That's a LOT of drywall!!

[tjambro]

Prof. wrote:

That lift will make light work of the job..
You're putting up 3 layers of drywall.? That's a LOT of drywall!!

Yea, after it's all over, I may regret that decision. Currently, there are 150 sheets of 5/8 drywall in my basement waiting for walls....10,800 lbs!

[bpape]

Tom wanted serious isolation. Mass is your friend - except when you have to schlep it all around.

Bryan

[Prof.]

I think he's building a secret bomb shelter!! what with those doors and all that drywall!!

[Space]

Hope the Redneck Ranger can make it!

So you and your Dad, while you insulate the overhead, you guys already thought about "ya know Dad, we are going to add roughly 7 pounds per square foot additional dead load to an already existing live load in this 13X26 sq. ft area?"

Or you had it checked out, or checked it out?


Right?

[tjambro]

Space wrote:

Hope the Redneck Ranger can make it!

Was he not able to deliver your "major award?" He's got the week off, so hopefully he will be ready for the next great adventure. LOL.

So you and your Dad, while you insulate the overhead, you guys already thought about "ya know Dad, we are going to add roughly 7 pounds per square foot additional dead load to an already existing live load in this 13X26 sq. ft area?"

Actually, I'm building a true room within a room...so that means I am adding new walls and new ceiling joists. So the 3 layers of ceiling drywall will be attached to the new 2x8 joists that will be resting on the new walls. No live load. I was going to leave it at that, but bpape suggested that I attach the top of the new walls with DC04 clips to the current 2x10 joists. I thought the room would be sturdy enough without the clips but he said with the massive IB, I would risk cracking the drywall from shear forces without the clips. Seeing the power of my DIY subs (See my avatar: that's me sitting in one of them) in the last house, I believed him. So...DC04 clips it is.

[Space]

Yes something to help prevent the destruction from racking is always welcome. Let in (cut into)diagonal bracing in the walls used to be code here @ Exit 4. Now days they require a vertical full sheet of 1/2 OSB on the exterior of the residential framing on both walls of all corners. You could use plywood on the interior of your framing and achieve the same positive benefit.

Exit 4 is in hurricane alley so we don't question things that may save our home and health

[tjambro]

Well folks, my dad and I survived Building Blitz '09...tee shirts are on order. Large amounts of ibuprofen were standard tools while toting drywall.

First off, if my dad is reading this....thanks for your patience. I know I kept slowing the project down by adding little projects to help sound isolation. Dad said it was fine and that his time was my time but I could tell he was a little frustrated. He was hoping to get all 3 layers of drywall up but we only got 1 layer done. Sure, I would have liked to get 3 done but I knew that would be a pretty tough goal to achieve. We didn't even start the drywall until Friday and Saturday was our last working day. I could tell Dad was much happier installing drywall than waiting for me to install pieces of mdf between joists and caulking them...see below for my reasoning.

A lot was accomplished but of course a lot remains.

Here's the highlights of what was accomplished:

Door from left theater wall to back rooms was removed. This door was recycled as a new entrance to the laundry/sump pump room from the lobby/arcade. In the picture below the left door is the laundry room and the right is the bathroom.



Bathroom was flip flopped. By this I mean that the bathroom door was moved to the opposite side of the room so that the bathroom is accessible from the lobby. This was done so that people will not have to walk through the laundry room to get to the bathroom. To accomplish this, the vanity and cabinet in the bathroom had to be moved. The vanity drain line had to be re-routed around the back side of the bathroom through the laundry room walls to allow for the new door. During all this mess, I decided to put up two layers of drywall over the existing 1/2" bathroom drywall along the wall that is next to the theater.

Here's the bathroom freshly reversed:



Notice that the vanity and cabinet need to be painted on the sides that used to be against the wall. Also you can see the old linoleum where the vanity and closet used to be. Naturally, the light switch had to be moved near the new door...all this stuff takes time!

The two HVAC returns for the house above that consisted of a joist cavity covered with sheet metal was redone by removing the sheet metal, adding 2" cotton on the bottom and covering with mdf and caulked:



In this picture, you are looking at the center basement wall (where left theater wall will be). You see the space between the joists that open into the non-theater portion of the basement? These will be filled with mdf. See below picture.

The HVAC supplies for the house above (originally metal but converted to flex) were also boxed in with mdf:



MDF was installed between the old joists all along the center of the basement:



This is where the left wall of the theater was built. I did this because I am using the bathroom and mechanical room walls as my outer wall in this area. While we were framing the new inner wall I noticed that any sound that would get past the upper portion of the inner wall would have a clear shot to the current HVAC trunks that run parallel with the left side of the theater. I figured the mdf squares between the joists would make the outer wall more contiguous. In this picture you can see 1 of the DC04 clips. After all the new ceiling joists were installed, I put a DC04 clip on every joist (not the new joists that I installed below the original house joists) that I had free access to.

...more Building Blitz '09 to come...